There's a wall at Hokkaido radio station FM G'Sky that's lined with thousands of CDs. There, Japanese rocker Eikichi Yazawa sits next to U.K. pop icon George Michael and Canadian singer Joni Mitchell, a mix of the local and the international in the small rural town of Takikawa.
Located along the main artery from Sapporo to Asahikawa, Takikawa boasts a population of around 40,000. FM G’Sky’s studio sits right in the city center, behind a Tsutaya CD and DVD store and close to a Bikkuri Donkey steak joint. The three-room studio may be small, but it has an outsized mission: It hopes to provide its audience with an internationally minded source of information.
Normally, when you think of community radio you may think of hobbyists getting lucky with a formula for good chat shows or music playlists. FM G’Sky’s inception 20 years ago, however, was entirely calculated between a group of young business leaders and officials at City Hall.